Change is something all of us have to deal with, and the more open we are to it, the better the outcome typically is.

Some people are great at taking whatever life throws in their path and taking it on with the strength of a superhero. Others, would rather fight a bad cold than deal with the discomfort of change.

Change happens

Not long ago, someone came to me so upset over a change she had to face with her job. She loved her existing position, and could see herself working in it for the rest of her life. She understood her role, breezed through assignments, and got along perfectly with her coworkers and boss.

Everything Changes

So when my friend’s boss approached her with some bad news that she was leaving the company, my friend wanted to toss her hands up in the air and throw a tantrum right there in the middle of the aisle.

Everything would change.

She’d have to deal with a new boss, likely renegotiate her flexibility, earn someone else’s trust, and have to justify every little thing she did with her day just to prove her value.

Change is uncomfortable

She cringed as she continued dumping her unfortunate news on me. “My new boss is a known backstabber, and no one respects her. She once took credit for a project I worked so hard on, and she did this without any remorse. I hate change.”

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” I said with a slight pull on the end of each word.

“That’s absurd.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

Change is a Chance to Grow

“What if this is happening not so much TO you, but FOR you?” I asked. “In other words, maybe you’re supposed to work with this person because it’ll be a new challenge and offer you a new chance to grow.”

She twisted her gaze sideways and contemplated my thought. “I don’t see the good here.”

I took a step closer. “Maybe your purpose is to help your new boss to become a better leader and person.”

She rolled her eyes at me. She left me that day with a shrug and a shallow attempt at a friendly goodbye.

The Upside of Change

A few days later, she called me. “The new boss treated me to lunch.”

“And?” I asked.

“And,” she rolled out, “She likes ceviche.”

I laughed. “All is right with the world again. See, I told you so.”

“It’s a start,” she said.

I swallowed more laughter, knowing by the following week, they’d be best friends going to The Loft at lunch time to browse racks of their newest styles.

Change is Going to Happen

Whether we embrace or reject change, it’s going to happen. The best thing we can do is bend with it, and make the best of its presented opportunities.

To Get Results:

Here is a perfect opportunity to use the principle of keeping it simple. To get results, you don’t have to drive yourself crazy cramming in all sorts of nutty activities. That will just set you up for failure. Instead, keep it simple by doing this one effective thing: Schedule your Priorities.

You Get Results When You Focus

A great way to achieve focus is to create habits or routines around a certain action that will help advance you forward towards your goal. When you create an action step routine, it’ll likely get done. And, if it’s a priority, it should get done!

Get Results by Zeroing in on Top Priorities

Here’s what I do to keep my priorities in check. I list out my top three most important things that I want to accomplish, and then I put them on my vision board. From there, I create a habit or routine around each priority.

For instance, my health is my top priority. So, to get results in this area of my life, what I do is take my calendar, and I physically schedule my workouts every single day. Well I take one day off as a rest day, but you get the picture. It’s on my calendar, therefore it’s something I’m committed to and have decided is something that has to get done.

Make It a Priority To Get Results

When you do this, you have a greater chance of achieving your goals and your priorities, and hence you get results!

Don’t leave what’s most important to you up to chance. Schedule it, get it done, and, feel great that you accomplished it. Simple as that.

Wishing you the very best,
Suzie Carr, novelist
www.curveswelcome.com

P.S. Do you agree? Have you done this before? And has it worked? Do you think you can get results by scheduling actions steps towards them?

http://curveswelcome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/schedule.jpg384400Suzie Carrhttp://a26.c8c.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Curves-Welcome-Suzie-Carr.gifSuzie Carr2013-10-16 15:42:292017-06-28 17:06:17#1 Way to Get Results

A question to ponder: if you could offer one thing that could impact others, what would it be?

4 Ways to Impact Others

After tossing this question out to the masses here were some responses on ways to impact others:

Giving a hug

Respecting someone by being honest

Making time for someone

Offering love and light

When we give of ourselves, we impact others. We empower them. We enrich their lives. We spread joy.

Giving takes on many forms. A gift of donating money to a worthy cause can be just as powerful as sharing a smile with someone who is having a bad day. The positive effect ripples and grows exponentially, spreading its roots deeper in areas that crave life, energy and the hope of a better day.

If we all gave a little something each day, the world, in its most basic spiritual sense, would be a better place.

It’s so easy to impact others.

Here’s why. The spirit of giving is contagious. It magnifies a power that attracts more giving, thus completing a powerful circle. When we impact others this way, we open up to all sorts of positive vibes that have the power to touch countless people in ways we can’t even begin to describe.

The gift of a smile can spread to thousands.

The gift of sitting with an elderly patient can brighten spirits.

The gift of blankets and kibble at an animal shelter can save countless of precious lives.

The gift of a hug offers soulful nourishment.

When we give, we help others feel the beauty of peace, gratitude, and hope. Giving renews spirits, ours included. That, in and of itself, is a gift to the world. If we’re living in our best light, then those around us benefit, too.

Make It a Goal to Impact Others.

Whenever possible, find a way to bring out the best in yourself and others. So many people are counting on you!

Recently, I had a run in with that ‘wall’ when I could not think of a single idea for my next novel, the sequel to Tangerine Twist. (I am giving away a free autographed copy. Comment below to be entered in for your chance to win it.)

Here’s how I managed to unblock:

Step 1. I realized just because I couldn’t unblock in that moment, my writing career would not end (BIG smile). I’d find an idea eventually.Step 2. Instead of forcing thoughts by sitting in front of my blank laptop screen, I turned it off and decided to clean my house instead.Step 3. I still couldn’t unblock, so I laughed at myself as I passed a mirror and saw my ridiculous frown.

My mood lifted instantly. I found a way to unblock!

I celebrated with a walk in the park. No surprise here, once I ventured out on the trail, ideas flowed. My new novel sprang to life.

Sometimes, all we need is a change of scenery to get things moving again.

Wishing you the very best,
Suzie Carr, novelist

I am giving away an autographed copy of Tangerine Twist to celebrate my creative flow with it’s sequel, Picture Perfect. I’ll select a random winner from all who comment on this piece from now until September 13. So……..

What’s the Secret to Being Creative?

For some people, getting the creative juices to flow is easy. For others, just thinking the words “I must be creative” stops all color, all ideas, all flow.

If you’re like me, and you find yourself in this category at times, don’t despair. There are solutions.

Creative Energy is Elusive.

A creative spark can appear and disappear just as quickly. The secret to staying productive as any kind of artist is to discover how to switch that light on and off at your will.

A Creative Muse Can Help.

A creative muse can be found in everything. It lives in a sunset, in a star, in a bird’s chirp, and in the melody of a beautiful song. The greatest part about this is that every creative person has access to this inner muse.

The trick to finding yours is tapping into your senses and letting them fly freely. Once you set your senses free, you enter a zone where you can create a world that touches and inspires others.

So how do you tap into your creative inner muse?

You have to clear your mind and here’s how. I challenge you to experiment with the following actions to see which one most effectively gets you into that creative zone.

1. Sit quietly and listen to music.

2. Create a collage of colors, shapes, and words. Then, stare at it through unfocused eyes.

3. Free write for ten minutes. Set a timer and write without any regard for grammar, spelling or logic. Just write whatever pops into your mind and don’t stop to analyze or think.

4. Get up and move for ten minutes. Break out into a light jog, brisk walk, jumping jacks, whatever you can safely perform.

5. Read quotes.

6. Meditate or pray.

7. Go out into nature. Sit on a park bench. Stare up at a tree. Admire a flower.

8. Play with color. Get a paint brush and splash paint on a canvas or color on paper with a crayon.

Okay so there you have it, eight solutions that can help free your mind so you can find your inner muse and get those creative juices flowing.

Try them and please share your feelings on this little challenge. Did it work? Are you feeling more creative?

As a novelist, I’m always interested to learn what motivates people to go beyond their comfort zone to that place where real growth happens. When creating characters, I enjoy learning lessons through them. What makes them act the way they do? Why do they care so deeply for certain things? How did they become so cynical, so happy or so fearful?

A Comfort Zone Can Steal the Magic

kikadoo. com

We’re all driven by different things. Our past experiences shape the way we view the world and the way we interact with others. We all come equipped with driving forces that dig deep and push us towards or pull us away from defining moments. Getting stuck in a comfort zone robs us of defining moments.

How do I get out of my comfort zone?

I’m driven by the word CAN’T. When someone tells me I can’t do something, I do it double-time. The catalyst for this motivation to jump out of the comfort zone digs deep.

When I was in kindergarten and sitting in a circle for story time, a girl bullied me. Each time I’d raise my hand to answer a question, she’d hit me. After several grueling rounds of this, I stopped raising my hand and eventually lost all confidence to speak to anyone but my best friend, Todd, and my immediate family members. For two years, I spoke only to them. Talk about getting stuck in a ‘comfort zone’ that was anything but comfortable!

Bribed with adventures and treats that would make any well-adjusted child leap for joy, I turned my back on any hope of being a ‘normal’ kid. Then one day, my best friend begged me to speak to his mother because that was the only way I could go to his baseball game. For three hours, I stood next to his mom as she watched soap operas and waited patiently for me to whisper something, anything, in her ear.

Todd begged and cried for me to brave up and say something. By the end of the third hour, my best friend knelt down exhausted and said to me, “I knew you couldn’t do it.” This little action switched something in me so powerful that I managed to whisper ‘yes’ into his mom’s ear.

I haven’t been able to stop talking since.

Fast forward to high school English class. To graduate, I needed to present my book report to the class. I refused, deathly afraid of public speaking. My English teacher allowed me to present it to him after school.

When I finished, he told me, “You won’t succeed in a professional setting, so get used to working harder instead of smarter. That little insult sparked an inferno inside of me, and I marched off to college shortly after and majored in public speaking, and graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Whenever someone tells me I can’t accomplish something, I accomplish the S*#T out of it!

That is my fuel. What’s yours? What gets you out of your comfort zone?

Novel number 7, Staying True, is here!

I am so happy to announce that my next novel, Staying True, is now available in print and kindle.

Staying True was a fascinating novel to write because it combined romance, friendship, and many life lessons in its story line. These characters are some of my favorites. Here’s why:

Ruby: her free-spirited ways are refreshing and ultra sexy. She’s someone with whom I wish I could hang out. What an adventure she’d create for sure. And I can’t fail to mention, she’s a masseuse:)

Nadia: her flaws make her so real. She’s someone I could confess my inner most secrets to and never worry she’d judge me on them.

Shawna: oh where to start with her…? I admire this strong, no-nonsense woman. Shawna is a transgender woman who would jump in front of a speeding train to save a friend’s life. Her honesty, courage, and knack for witty redirection make me wish I could have a friend like her in my life.

Grampa: I molded this genuine character right from my greatest role model, my own grampa. His story may be fictitious, but his personality is spot on to the lively, youthful spirit of my sweet grandfather. In this story, Grampa has made mistakes throughout his life, and has seen his fair share of tragedy and disappointments, and yet he still jokes around and is able to share lessons that can change a person in a blink.

Here’s a quick synopsis of Staying True-

Free-spirited masseuse Ruby Clark treasures her independence, refusing to allow anyone to encroach on her sense of control. She succeeds at remaining unaffected until she meets Nadia Chase, a self-assured, sexy new client who sets Ruby’s heart in motion.

The two develop a connection that drips with chemistry. As Ruby struggles to maintain her autonomy amidst the fervent attraction, Nadia reveals a secret that threatens to derail both their professional relationship and their blossoming love.

Seeking guidance and support from Shawna, their transgender friend who struggles with her own issues of self-worth, and Ruby’s grampa, a wise storyteller who raised Ruby in the aftermath of a childhood tragedy, the unlikely foursome embarks on a quest to learn the meaning of love, letting go, and staying true.

Have you had a chance to read Staying True yet?

If so, who is your favorite character and why? What do you feel is the central theme to Staying True?

When we forgive someone, we free ourselves. The weight of the world magically falls off of our shoulders. It’s so challenging to do though, isn’t it?

I once held a grudge against someone for three months over something hurtful she said to me. I carried that grudge around like it was my suit of armor. It justified my bitterness. I’d go to sleep at night and allow this grudge to take up refuge in my dreams. I’d wake in the morning and further allow it to accompany me through the day and diminish my spirit. To sum up this span of time – I wasted three good months of my life.

To forgive someone is hard.

At that moment of giving in to forgive someone, you feel like you’re selling out. So, you hold tight to your ideals for the sake of standing your ground and you wait for that moment when vindication seeps in and makes you feel good again.

To forgive someone takes time.

I waited three months for this person to apologize for her hurtful words. The apology never arrived. Instead, I was left with nothing more than a dreaded feeling that I had lost a battle and she had won. To forgive her was out of the question.

Then one day I was having lunch with a good friend of mine, complaining about how much worse I felt towards this person still after three long months. My friend placed her fork down, then reached out for my fork and placed mine down, too. She grabbed hold of my hands, stared me straight in the eye and begged me to let go. “Be the better person and forgive her.”

When we forgive, we let go.

The weight of carrying around this anger for so long had created such an imbalance, such a burden, such an emotional drain on my soul that suddenly I needed to shed it. I wanted to sleep a full night again. I wanted to wake up feeling light and happy. I wanted my peace back.

The path to forgive is right in front of us.

I spent one whole week writing and rewriting an email to this person trying to find the right words to describe the pain she had caused me, and how I wanted to just move on and forget everything. These drafts grew to the size of a chapter, stretching out for thousands of words. A novel was in full bloom! Every new draft seemed to negate the very thing I was trying to do. I was telling her how wrong she was and how I was going to be the one to set it right. She’d never read this and think, yeah, let’s hug now and be best of friends again.

So, a week later, thousands of words into it, I decided on this instead: “I miss you and I love you.”

I hit send and the weight of the world fell from my shoulders.

I learned that sometimes the best way to show your strength is to be humble with it and allow it to come in as a gentle breeze.

There are no excuses why we can’t achieve great things in this lifetime.

We are equipped with everything we need to be successful. So why do so many of us stop short of achieving our dreams?

No Excuses to Back Down, You Say? Hmm…

We’ve all been there – to that moment in time when we just want to stop all action on a goal because all the odds are stacked up against us in achieving it. We’ve been told there should be no excuses, yet everywhere we turn we see this gigantic, scary obstacle blocking us, warning us to just turn around and go the other way.

No Excuses Still?

I’ll be honest, I get that urge to quit halfway through projects every time I write a novel or paint a picture. Yup. Every single time.

I’ll try to explain this with an example of what happens when I set out to do an oil painting. I sketch. I add my shadows. I paint my colorful mid-tones. Then I step back and that’s when the derailment occurs. The shadows aren’t quite right and the objects aren’t exactly up to par. I decide the only way to fix the mess is to start over.

No Excuses? Say What?

I toss my brushes into my wash bin, rip off my gloves and give up on it for days. The lure of fixing it creeps into my mind. I start to think, hmm, maybe there are no excuses…

So, I waltz back into my studio, reexamine, maybe brush on a stroke or two of a highlight, step back and nod in approval. I say to myself, “Okay, maybe one more dab.” One more dab turns into twenty and my heart starts to charge again. “I might just be able to save this painting after all.”

Cottage scene I painted for my mom. I was ready to toss it when I couldn’t get the reflection the way I wanted. Then, I decided not to give up.

On go the gloves and the soulful music as I dive heart first into the zone. The result – well, I’ve yet to paint over a canvas and start over again.

At that moment when you think of giving up, remember your greatest breakthrough could be in that next brushstroke, that next chapter you write, that next mile you run.

You’re right there. Don’t give up! Think, No Excuses!

Have you experienced a breakthrough like this after almost giving up? If so, comment here. I’d love to hear about it.Do you believe like me, that there are no excuses to achieving those things that make our hearts sing?

http://curveswelcome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/dont-give-up.jpg237320Suzie Carrhttp://a26.c8c.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Curves-Welcome-Suzie-Carr.gifSuzie Carr2013-05-23 18:19:522017-06-28 17:26:07If You Want to Thrive Have No Excuses

A vision board is a visual representation

It’s a visual representation of things and circumstances we want to attract. I look at vision boards as a playground for my dreams. I have one hanging in my dining room so I can’t miss it. Mine consists of a white dry erase board filled with inspiring quotes, messages of gratitude, as well as the all important goals laid out on colorful paper. I pass by my vision board often, and I make a point to stop and reflect on it at least once a day. If I see my dreams and all that I have to be grateful for so far, then I am more apt to take action.

A vision board acts as a system

I’m all about systems. Although, I’d classify myself as a creative person, I’m tactical in my approach. Without a system, I’d be spinning in circles with an out-of-control mind racing from one thing to another. A vision board helps me to achieve my dreams in a logical, practical fun way.

A vision board is a road map

I would not be able to succeed at running a publishing company, maintaining an active blog, writing lesbian romance novels, holding down a full-time marketing job, and enjoying quiet moments with my family if I didn’t have some sort of road map to help me sort out the steps. When laid out in front of me, the necessary action steps become apparent. I know that to get from point A to point B on my road map, I need to do XYZ.

I’m a visual person. I need to see things clearly to understand them, to absorb them, to act on them. Many things are tossed into my path on a daily basis. Without the help of my vision board, these things could easily swallow me up whole and block me from enjoying a fine balance while achieving my dreams.